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Kronocalypse Design: Cat People in Progress

For the most part, in this design blog I’ve written about decisions I’ve already made for Kronocalypse. This time I’m going write about something that’s still in flux. The race formally known as cat people, which now has the working name felinoids.

The concept of felinoids began when I decided I wanted non-human species in the Steam Age that the human empires had colonized. I didn’t want to use the standard fantasy races, so I opted for the previously described tree folk and a race of cat people, because… well… who doesn’t like cat people?

Savage Worlds has a standard race of cat-people called rakashans, which I could have gone with. The problem is they are kind of jerks. Or at least, they are frequently portrayed as antagonists in the meta-plots. They also start with Racial Enemy and Bloodthirsty Hindrances, which are not especially PC friendly.

So I decided to create something similar, but not quite the same. I developed some history for them, how they once ruled a great empire of their own, but due to infighting and natural disasters, it collapsed centuries before humans came to their continent. Their reactions to the human colonizers are more diverse and more extreme than the tree folks’. Some felinoids take up arms against the humans, while others joined with humans working on the airships that fly too and from their native lands.

At the same time I debated just how strongly the cat people resemble cats and how much they look like humans. On one end of the spectrum there are the very feline creatures like Kimahri from Final Fantasy X or the Kilrathi from Wing Commander. On the other end of the spectrum, there are the ubiquitous cat girls of anime, who basically are just humans with cat ears and tails. There are plenty examples of characters in-between too, like the Thundercats in both their original and reboot incarnations.

Thundercats you say? That got me thinking about how the Thundercats all resembled different species of great cats. Form there I latched on to the idea that maybe some of the different factions of felinoids had different bloodlines, resembling different cats. These different bloodlines have different strengths, which led me to the current incarnation of the felinoids. It’s still not final, as I need to add some sort of downside to the race, but its a glimpse into the race’s design in progress:

Felinoid Racial Edges and HindranceCat-Like Reflexes: Felinoids begin with a d6 in Agility.Claws: Felinoids have claws that deal Str+d6 damage. These claws also help them climb, granting them a +2 bonus to Climbing rolls.Bloodline: In addition select on of the following bloodlines.Lionan: Lionans are the most social of the felinoids. They gain a +2 bonus to Charisma.Tygran: Tygrans are the fiercest warriors of the felionids. Their claws deal Str+d8 damage and have AP 2.Jagaran: Jagarians are the most spiritual and intellectual of the Felinoids. They gain 5 additional power points when taking the Magic, Miracles, or Weird Science backgrounds. Additionally they can begin play with the Miracles backgrounds, though the begin without any great kami (they still have the summon alley power).Cheetaran: Cheetarans are the fastest of the felinoids. They have a pace of 8, and roll a d12 for their running die.